My friend Morris grew up in the 50’s, and he’s a big fan of The Phil Silvers Show, also known as You’ll Never Get Rich, aka Sgt. Bilko. I watched the shows in re-runs in the 60’s, but like The Honeymooners I didn’t fully appreciate the comedy until I was an adult.
Sgt. Bilko was the basis for numerous shows that followed, including McHale’s Navy (featuring my mother’s old buddy Ernest Borgnine), F Troop, and even M*A*S*H (yes, I know it was first an Altman movie).
There’s an excellent DVD collection available of Bilko shows. One of the episodes is called “The Big Scandal.” It originally aired on May 14, 1957. The premise is that the character named Doberman is accidentally hypnotized into thinking he’s in love with the wife of the colonel in charge of the Army camp. Bilko intercepts one of his calls and thinks there’s a “gigolo with greasy sideburns” on the make. The colonel’s wife is about to visit her daughter and grandchildren, who have chicken pox, so the camp doctor is stopping by to inoculate her (a neat trick, as a chicken pox vaccine didn’t exist until the 1990’s). That’s Julie Newmar at 23 as the maid.
That’s the setup. Got it? Here’s 10 minutes of the show. Watch and laugh.
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Yes, it is like an absurd stage play. Some of the lines are priceless, such as the one that starts with, “Don’t let a few Noel Coward plays …” And the way the medical officer can’t stop talking about his lost love once he gets started is a hoot. “My parents said never marry a waitress!”
Excellent farce-style comedy, like a Eugene Ionesco play, or Noel Coward, whatever! Yeow! Julie Newmar was, is, er, TALL! Tom readily admits she was a favorite of his on TV when he was growing up (remember, he was born in 1950!)